They're both useless
by Dontmezwitme
Summary: Oh, hey, it's Shiemi's birthday! Now what the hell do I get her?


It was a horrible present.

Rin was forced to admit this when he thought about actually _giving_ the chocolate to his delicate classmate; with a growl of frustration he looked away from the candy store and walked down the road.

But really, what exactly were you supposed to give to a girl like Shiemi? She was a _girl_, which, according to the manga he'd accidentally read when Yukio was out and there was nothing else to do, meant chocolates and romantic trips to the sea and declarations of love.

In fact, now that he thought about it, not _one _bloody book had said anything that wasn't to do with romance. That was probably his problem in the first place.

Rin sat himself down on a stone ledge and re-evaluated. He had been looking for a gift for the past three hours now, when Yukio had kicked him out. Two of those hours had been spent getting groceries before realizing that he had to go get a gift.

What pissed him off was not just the fact that he'd completely forgotten about Shiemi's gift (though that was enough to make him punch a wall before realizing that was a bad idea). No, it was the fact that Shiemi never told him when her birthday was. What was it with her, anyways? It was pretty disarming to have what was basically a five-year-old in a pretty girl's body. Very disarming. It wasn't that he _liked_ her or anything; she was a friend. Of course. Yes.

He felt like punching something again.

But that feeling passed when he walked by a florist's shop, his face lighting up in excitement. Of course! Flowers! Or plants, whatever the hell was the difference. Surely there had to be something here. Why didn't he come here in the first place?

The man at the counter grinned at him when he walked in. "Getting flowers for your girlfriend?" he asked, half-teasing.

He was amused when Rin turned a brilliant red and muttered something under his breath. _Ah, young love!_ he thought to himself.

The boy looked around the shop and felt a bit disappointed. There were only either full grown, cut flowers or just seed packets.

"Hey, you. Do you have any still-alive flowers?" he asked. The man (he belatedly noticed the tag on his shirt said Hiro) scratch his head and glanced around.

"I don't know…you mean a potted one, of course?" he asked, grabbing a hook. Before he could ask him what he was going to do with the hook he flipped the ceiling down.

"What the hell-?" Rin spluttered. The false ceiling was now folded against the wall and above him, in a blinding flash of sunlight, was a glass ceiling bestrewn with hanging plants. Hiro extended the hook and brought down some bright blue bulbs bursting out of a plastic container.

A few checks with a practiced hand gave the flowers order and he turned to the dumbstruck boy. "That'll be 500 yen, please."

Rin grumbled but handed over the cash and tucked the pot under his arm.

**00000000**

The next day, during lunch break, Shiemi waved hello to Rin. He made a beeline towards her and presented her with some riotous bluebells.

"H-happy Birthday!" he stuttered. "I knew that you didn't like it when people cut flowers since they were kinda dead when that happened so I got you some that were still in a pot-erm, I didn't know what these were called so-"

His heart did _not_ skip a beat (because that was _not_ how Rin Okumura rolled, he was smooth as ice) when she smiled that wide smile at him and accepted the gift. "Thank you!" she said, carefully putting the flowers down and throwing her arms around Rin.

"Wha-wha-" His face felt like it was melting off-it was too damn hot today, and it was supposed to be spring, too-

She pulled away just as fast and was immediately concerned. "Oh, Rin, you're all red! I-I'll get Nii to give you something to prevent cold-"

Yukio held back a snort of laughter when Shiemi towed Rin back to his dorm and told him that he was 'very sick'. And Rin was supposed to be the older brother.

**00000000**

* * *

><p><strong>Oh man, how much do I love you Shiemi? Let me count the ways.<strong>

**If Rin seems a little OOC that is because I'm too used to writing oblivous _guys_ and deredere _girls_ this is a turnaround for me urgh. I need to go write different characters from Hetalia.**


End file.
